Connect with us

Slider

‘A most fortunate guy:’ former Highlanders coach, national team soccer player  takes over at  top US college

Published

on

BY LORI RILEY

When Methembe Ndlovu was growing up in Zimbabwe, he thought he had to make a choice at age 16: either he could play soccer or pursue an education.

Advertisement

In Zimbabwe, he could not do both at a high level.

Both of his parents were schoolteachers; they wanted him to continue his education. Ndlovu wanted to play soccer.

One day, at soccer practice, a man from the United States showed up.

Advertisement

He talked about colleges in America and how Ndlovu could play and go to school.

That moment changed his life.

“I like to say I’m one of the most fortunate guys,” Ndlovu said.

Advertisement

Soccer and education have taken him all over the world – to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where he saw snow for the first time and was a four-time Ivy League player, to playing soccer professionally, to coaching the most popular soccer team in Zimbabwe, to helping start a programme that combined education about Aids and HIV with soccer.

Now Ndlovu, 49, is back in New England, in his first year coaching the men’s soccer team at Trinity College.

Former coach Mike Pilger retired after 18 seasons in November after the Bantams went 3-11-1 last season.

Advertisement

“I spent my first few years in the US on the East Coast, so this has always felt a little bit like my home in the U.S,” said Ndlovu, who has had stints as an assistant at Notre Dame and Penn State.

“I had very high regard for [the NESCAC] so when this opportunity opened up, I felt like this could be a good fit.”

Ndlovu started playing soccer as a boy. He grew up in a city called Bulawayo in southwestern Zimbabwe.

Advertisement

“I was a very committed athlete, but my parents said, ‘You are continuing in school,’” he said.

“I would play with my club team when I could, which is unusual – my parents said if you keep these grades, you can play club.

“The kids who were really serious about being professional as football players, they were training in the morning and the afternoon.

Advertisement

“I could only train in the afternoon after school. It really put me in a good position for US colleges.

“I didn’t know anything about college, or scholarships or financial aid. It was something that wasn’t even a thought for me.”

That is, until somebody from Dartmouth came to one of his practices.

Advertisement

A man was teaching English at a local school and came to watch the club team play and asked to speak to Ndlovu, whom the coaches pointed out as a good student.

“He went back to the US and started sending me SAT prep stuff,” Ndlovu said. “It was totally random.

“This is why I say I’m one of the luckiest people.

Advertisement

“A year later, another person came on the same kind of exchange thing to teach so I developed a connection with the school and with the coach and prepared for the SATs and a couple of years later, I was in Hanover N.H.”

Ndlovu got off the plane at Logan Airport, not knowing anyone in the US.

An assistant coach named John O’Connor was there to welcome him with a sign with his name on it.

Advertisement

In a full circle kind of moment, on October 16, Trinity will play Castleton (Vt.) University, where O’Connor is now coaching.

Ndlovu always assumed he would play professionally then become a teacher.

But as he watched his college coach, Bobby Clark (who went on to win a national championship at Notre Dame in 2013), he realized once again he could do both.

Advertisement

“Being exposed to the whole college atmosphere in the US, it kind of started to plant an idea in my head you could actually teach soccer for a living, this could be a career,” he said.

He did play, for the Zimbabwe national team and in the US for a professional team on Cape Cod.

He got the chance, for 2 ½ years, to coach his favourite childhood team,  Highlanders, and they won the Zimbabwean national title.

Advertisement

He also was the co-founder of a programme called Grassroots Soccer, which sought to educate youngsters in Zimbabwe about Aids and HIV using soccer as a vehicle. Zimbabwe has the fifth-highest HIV rate in the world.

“It’s a subject that can be difficult to talk to with young people so soccer was just a tool for engagement,” he said.

“I’m still involved. When I moved here, I had become Africa’s CEO.

Advertisement

“”I was looking after programmes in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa for Grassroots so when I left, I transitioned onto the board.

“And I just stepped down from the board this year, but I still remain involved behind the scenes.

“Our mission is to save lives. We have graduated more than a million adolescents in 22 different countries since 2002.

Advertisement

“This means a lot of young people have gone through our programmes and graduated and received life-saving information.”

Trinity’s soccer practice began Thursday. Earlier in the week, Ndlovu couldn’t wait to start.

“We want to improve every day,” he said. “And at the end of the season we’ll finish where we belong.

Advertisement

“But what we want to do is work together as a group, on and off the field, with and without the ball, really be a team – if we take care of those little things, working together, playing properly, preparing properly for games, the results will take care of themselves.”- Hartford Courant

 

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Slider

Zimbabwe’s new mothers face extortion for ‘free’ child health cards

Published

on

Photo credit: Gamuchirai Masiyiwa, GPJ Zimbabwe

BY GAMUCHIRAI MASIYIWA

Summary: The quiet return of maternity fees and the black-market sale of essential documents put extra burdens on mothers as they struggle to navigate a broken system.

Advertisement

First-time mother Connie Jowastands with her 3-month-old baby nestled against her back, chatting with other mothers in line. Like many women at this crowded clinic in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb, Jowa is trying to get a Child Health Card, which was unavailable when she gave birth at a public hospital, and was still out of reach at her local clinic. Health cards are mysteriously out of stock.

 

But they can be bought under the table, if you know who to ask and are willing to pay.

Advertisement

 

Zimbabwe’s Child Health Cards, meant to be free to new mothers, are crucial documents that track babies’ growth, vaccinations and medical histories. Without them, each clinic visit becomes a reset button. Inquiry into the child’s medical history starts from scratch. Since July 2024, the cards have disappeared from health facilities across Harare’s central hospitals and 42 council clinics — even though the card’s producers say they’re making enough to meet demand. This artificial shortage has birthed a shadow market where clinic staff quietly sell this essential document to desperate mothers. This sort of nickel-and-dime bribery exposes deep cracks in a health care system that’s already failing the most vulnerable people.

 

Advertisement

What started as a clandestine operation has become an open secret.

 

“When cards arrive at a clinic, they’re kept by the sister in charge. But it’s usually nurse aides or junior staff who sell them, working in cahoots with other staff members,” says Simbarashe James Tafirenyika, who leads the Zimbabwe Municipality’s Nurses and Allied Workers Union.

Advertisement

 

Someone who sells 100 cards can pocket around US$500, she says, and none of that money goes to the government of the council.

 

Advertisement

The going rate for the Child Health Card is US$5, say several mothers who spoke to Global Press Journal.

 

Medical Histories on Scraps of Paper

Advertisement

 

When the system works as designed, every mother receives a Child Health Card when her baby is born. Now, most mothers must track their infants’ medical histories on scraps of paper.

 

Advertisement

Harare’s council clinics alone deliver more than 3,000 babies every month, with each mother left scrambling for documentation.

 

“I feel hurt,” Jowa says. “I want to know what vaccines my child has received and their purposes, but I just can’t get that information.”

Advertisement

 

A nurse aide assistant at one of the council clinics has witnessed this shadow market.

 

Advertisement

“If a nurse is selling, they ask the mother to be ‘skillful’ if they need the card,” says the assistant, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. In Zimbabwe, “skillful” is a common euphemism for paying small bribes.

 

While the Ministry of Health and Child Care is supposed to supply the cards for free, Prosper Chonzi, the City of Harare’s director of health, admits supplies have been erratic for six months and that people have complained about being forced to purchase these cards. Clinic workers may be exploiting the known shortage and coordinating among themselves to sell the cards rather than providing them for free, he says.

Advertisement

 

“We can’t rule that out,” he says.

 

Advertisement

The card shortage coincides with the quiet return of maternity fees in public hospitals. Though not officially announced, hospitals have begun billing mothers after delivery — a policy change the government would neither confirm nor deny.

 

High Inflation, More Corruption

Advertisement

 

Between 2011 and 2024, more than 1 million pregnant women in the country delivered babies for free at health care clinics, under a scheme called results-based financing. Maternal mortality rates dropped during that time.

 

Advertisement

But these gains, partly achieved through better access to safe delivery services, face new hurdles as budget constraints and economic pressures reshape the health care landscape.

 

Even in 2021, a study from Transparency International Zimbabwe surveyed over 1,000 people in Zimbabwe and found that 74% had been asked to pay a bribe while trying to access health care services. A feeling of being underpaid amidst a deteriorating economy and high inflation was a key driver among health workers who solicitated bribes, which has been a rising trend, according to the study.

Advertisement

 

“The motivation for earning an extra income is strong especially in countries with a high rate of inflation,” the study states.

 

Advertisement

Zimbabwe’s health care system faces chronic challenges, including an exodus of health workers to other countries, inadequate funding, drug shortages, obsolete infrastructure and more. In 1991, the government introduced user fees across public institutions as part of an economic structural adjustment program. The government abolished the fees in 2011, only to partially reinstate them around 2013.

 

Prudence Hanyani, a community activist in Harare, says the reintroduction of user fees in public hospitals will burden women who already shoulder extra costs, like paying for midwives, so they can get better treatment when giving birth.

Advertisement

 

“Maternal health services should be free,” she says, “because giving birth is a service for the nation that contributes to the country’s population.”

 

Advertisement

Mothers Pay the Price

 

Valerie Shangwa, who gave birth four and a half months ago at a private maternity hospital, still has no card for her daughter.

Advertisement

 

“You know how difficult it is to keep a paper,” she says. “When nurses ask about last month’s weight, you end up guessing, and that distorts the whole record.”

 

Advertisement

Charlton Prickise, technical director at Print Flow, says his company sells Child Health Cards only to government-authorized health facilities and faces no shortages.

 

“The shortages mean health facilities simply aren’t coming to get them,” he says.

Advertisement

 

Though Print Flow hasn’t detected leaks, Prickise recalls finding other versions of this card on the market two years ago, possibly from a nongovernmental organization. Print Flow isn’t the sole supplier of the cards, and they haven’t received any government orders recently.

 

Advertisement

In a written response to Global Press Journal, Donald Mujiri, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Child Care, said the shortage of Child Health Cards is due to supply chain inefficiencies and insufficient donor funding. The cards, he says, are procured with government funding and aid from supporting partners such as the United Nations Children’s Fund. Nevertheless, Mujiri says, the ministry needs to strengthen the supply chain management system at all levels and proactively mobilize resources for procuring the cards.

 

Meanwhile, mothers wait — or pay the price. Faith Musinami, 26, delivered her daughter in July 2024. An orderly told her the clinic only had cards for boys, but if she wanted, they could organize one for US$5. Musinami had not budgeted for the cost. She sacrificed the last penny she had.

Advertisement

This story was originally published by Global Press Journal.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

National

Ranger killed by elephant in Kariba

Published

on

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI 

A 62-year-old ranger, Josphat Mandishara, was tragically killed by an elephant in Kariba yesterday.

Advertisement

Mandishara, who worked for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks), was on patrol in the Gatche-gatche area with fellow rangers and police officers.

At around 10 pm, Mandishara returned to the harbor where their boat was docked, and that’s when he encountered the elephant. The elephant charged at him, causing fatal injuries. His colleagues were nearby, resupplying at the Gatche-gatche Irrigation Scheme.

Mandishara’s body was taken to Kariba District Hospital for a post-mortem, and the incident was reported to the police.

Advertisement

ZimParks has sent a team to manage the problem elephant and prevent similar incidents in the future.

The Director General of ZimParks, Prof. Edson Gandiwa, and his team have sent condolences to Mandishara’s family, friends, and colleagues. Mandishara will be remembered for his dedication to wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

In the community

Crocodile attacks claim 9 lives, injure 11

Published

on

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

A surge in crocodile attacks has left a trail of death and destruction in Zimbabwe, with 9 fatalities and 11 injuries reported in the last two months.

Advertisement

According to a statement released by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks), 49 human-crocodile conflict cases were recorded during the same period, resulting in the loss of 44 cattle and 60 goats.

The Mid-Zambezi region, which includes Lake Kariba, Angwa River, and Hunyani River, was the hardest hit, with 19 cases reported. The Central region recorded 14 cases, while 16 cases were reported in other areas, including Matopo, Harare, North-West Matabeleland, and South-East Low-veld.

ZimParks has urged communities to exercise extreme caution, especially around water bodies, during the current rain season. The authority has advised communities to ensure that livestock and children are not left unattended near rivers or lakes, and to take precautions when engaging in water activities such as fishing, swimming, and domestic chores.

Advertisement

To mitigate the situation, ZimParks is working closely with local authorities and conservation partners to raise public awareness and promote safety practices. The authority has emphasized its commitment to finding a balance between ensuring public safety and conserving wildlife.

As the situation continues to unfold, ZimParks has appealed to the public to remain vigilant and to report any crocodile sightings or attacks to the authorities.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 VicFallsLive. All rights reserved, powered by Advantage